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I have the Cloud Car... and Snowspeeder!

Take that, crappy April Fools joke, I actually have both of these! They were on TRU shelves last night. The Snowspeeder is shortpacked at 1 per case and won't be in the upcoming "wave 1 revision __" cases.

The Cloud Car is pretty much exactly as expected based on the preview images. The connection point between the 2 halves is very strong and at first didn't seem like the cars were going to connect without a gap, but with enough pressure that last millimeter gave up and they snapped together. The cloud car seems smaller than the vintage, but upon comparison they are the same size except the connecting arms on the vintage are wider by around maybe an inch. The cockpit has painted details, nothing too fancy but it's nice to see it in there anyway, and they sculpted a bit of a raised bump for the actual seat (an issue that bothered the EU Cloud Car). The paint has no weathering at all, which is the only issue IMO that isn't a positive. The cockpits open nicely, although they sculpted an inner lip underneath so it's not as smooth getting figures in as the vintage was, but I was able to get POTJ Lando and the OTC Cloud Car pilot in with no difficulty (they were what I had at hand). The landing gear are simple, and even closed their tabs stick out the bottom which bugs me a little, but they sculpted and painted a small gun on each so I'll forgive (it makes no sense, but that's ok). The pod-sliding gimmick is fun, though I wish the weapon inside was more exciting. All in all, it's still a little boring but it's alright. I don't think I would have paid TRU's $28 on its own though, only thanks to BOGO50% would its value be acceptable. Funny enough, the packaging diorama backdrop has 2 small cloud cars on it in the background, both are of the weapons-deployed variety with the pods slid in.

The Snowspeeder is very nice right out of the box. No weathering, but otherwise it's head and shoulders above the original (which was very nice too, but had inaccuracies). The lack of raised line detailing is great, instead it's recessed - it was only buying both of these new vehicles and comparing them to their vintage counterparts that I noticed the Kenner vehicles consistently used raised lines to represent panels rather than ones cut into the vehicle, I believe due to improvements in tooling technology. The canopy looks great, the windows bigger and smoother and more accurate, with lots of visibility. The smaller size is more accurate to the films, it looks better and is more fun to whoosh, and the only liberties that I can see they took were a small trough in the underside of the hull, and the position of Luke's seat (in the movie, Luke sits right under the dash, which would have been impossible unless they cut off his legs or the T-47 was Flintstones-powered). The missile-firing guns aren't so bad, but I'm grateful they weren't the only option, they're fun but not accurate, so it's good to swap them out. Likewise, the swappable rear gun is dandy, they don't pivot up and down but they share sculpted detailing, and the larger firing one has a cute trick with the "cable out!" gimmick, a small hatch in the underside that houses the excess line and then pops all the way out. I wish the string was even longer, I may have to make that happen. The hidden hatch door comes off a tad easily, but it's sculpted to be put back on either way so orientation is never a worry. The upper flaps open, but the lower ones are still static. The removable rear cannon bit is removable on the right side to allow access to the panel under - in ESB, Luke's snowspeeder has this removed while the others don't, so it's a great touch. Deco is decent, mixed grays and a few touches of white, under the access panel and flaps is dark reddish orange, there's tons of tiny aurebesh writing everywhere, but I haven't translated it yet. The cockpit interior has a very nice sculpt, but requires a dozen stickers. Oh, and a nice little touch, they sculpted a hole to accommodate the recent Luke Snowspeeder's grappling gun, sans hook. All in all, quite nice and a worthy update.

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

"In Brooklyn, a castle, is where dwell I"

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.